Semiconductor devices are used in countless applications throughout the world and millions upon millions of individual semiconductor devices are produced annually. Each semiconductor device must be individually and completely electrically tested before it is installed within an electronic or other device. Different semiconductor devices perform different functions and therefore undergo different functional, parametric and electrical tests. In any semiconductor device fabrication or testing facility, the number of different semiconductor devices to be tested far exceeds the number of test equipment available to test the devices. As such, different semiconductor devices are tested on the same test assembly. The test assembly typically includes a probe head with probes or pins that contact the pattern formed on the semiconductor device, and a printed circuit board, PCB, dedicated to testing a particular semiconductor device. According to conventional testing technology and practices, when a new semiconductor device, i.e. a semiconductor device different than the previously tested semiconductor device, is to be tested upon a test assembly, the hardware of the probe head and also the PCB used for testing the semiconductor device, must be changed. The new test configuration must be verified before the new semiconductor device can be tested and the hardware change and verification process is a labor intensive and time consuming process.
Moreover, since each probe head and PCB is conventionally dedicated and adaptable for testing only a particular semiconductor device type, these expensive items must be purchased anew for each semiconductor device to be tested. When a semiconductor device is phased out, the costly probe head and PCB must be discarded.
Conventional probe heads are not universally adaptable for use on more than one semiconductor device or in conjunction with multiple printed circuit boards with different PCB patterns. FIG. 1 illustrates probe heads 2 and 4 that each include a pattern used to test a single corresponding semiconductor device, i.e. probe head 2 includes a probe pattern design used to test a semiconductor device having bump pattern 12 formed thereon and probe head 4 includes a probe pattern design used to test a semiconductor device having bump pattern 14 formed thereon. Bump pattern 12 consists of a plurality of bumps 13 and bump pattern 14 consists of bumps 17. It can be seen that probe head patterns 2 and 4 are the mirror images of bump patterns 12 and 14, respectively, formed on corresponding wafers 11 and 15.
It would therefore be desirable to eliminate the time consuming and labor intensive steps of changing hardware and verifying the test set up before switching to the testing of another semiconductor device, as the elimination of these shortcomings of the conventional testing procedure would enable more semiconductor devices to be tested in a given time period and produce a considerable cost savings.